Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Characters Worth Following

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week, we're looking at characters that would make great leaders, so here are ten characters that I think would be worth following.



Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): The Harry Potter series would have been, like, one book long without Hermoine making sure Harry and Ron didn't kill themselves by accident. She is smart, capable, and I would be more than happy to follow her wherever she went.

Lyra Belacqua (The Golden Compass): Lyra's just one of those "natural leaders"...it's no accident that when the Jordan College kids are fighting the townie kids, that it's Lyra that leads them into battle. Her natural charisma is obvious even on the page.

Gandalf (The Fellowship of the Ring): When the Fellowship sets off on their quest, it's the wizard that leads them...in part to quell arguments between the races about leadership, but also because he's wise and thoughtful and anyone who's beloved in Hobbiton is someone I'd be okay trailing behind.

Madeline Mackenzie (Big Little Lies): After reading this book (I still haven't seen the show and I really need to!), I so appreciated Madeline's take-charge attitude that I'd have happily joined her book club (or anything else she wanted me to).

Charles O'Keefe (A Wrinkle In Time): While Meg is my favorite character from this series, she's too short-tempered to make a good leader. Leaders are most effective if they're liked, and who wouldn't like and line up behind Charles?

Emma Woodhouse (Emma): England in Austen's time didn't have a lot in the way of formal leadership roles for women, but clever Emma was clearly the queen bee of her social set, which is about as much as an upper-class lady could aspire to.

Mr. Wednesday (American Gods): There's a reason he's the one that goes on the journey to round up the old gods across the country...he's the one that's got the persuasiveness to get them to join up!

Achilles (Song of Achilles): He's a strong, true, and fair commander of his troops, who wouldn't want to follow him...and who would care that he's gay, for that matter?

Ned Stark (A Game of Thrones): Noble, brave, and always doing the right thing, Ned is pretty much the platonic ideal of a hero and a worthy leader.

Jean Valjean (Les Miserables): He spends most of his life repenting for a criminal act by becoming selfless and kind and the kind of man who gets elected to be the mayor of his town.

13 comments:

  1. Can't believe I didn't think of Jean Valjean - or Gandalf! Some people wouldn't agree that Ned's a great leader because he doesn't 'play the game' but I'd 100% follow him. Great list :)

    My TTT: https://basedonthebook.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/top-ten-tuesday-10-book-characters-that.html

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    1. Ned's refusal to "play the game" is why he'd be worth following, I'd say! Thanks!

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  2. Hermione made my list, too. She’d be a great leader. That’s probably why I’ve seen her on so many lists today.

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    1. I think a lot of nerdy girls (like, well, me!), have loved Hermione and been ready to follow her wherever she goes for years now!

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  3. Hermione seems very popular this week!
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2017/11/07/top-ten-tuesday-132/

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  4. Good choices, and I love the mix of genres and age levels you pulled them from. Charles O'Keefe is an interesting choice, and one that wouldn't have occurred to me. Hermione has been on practically everyone's list today, and for good reason. Gandalf, definitely! (Though I picked Galadriel and Aragorn as my LOTR choices.)

    I'm curious, though: how do you make your Top Ten Tuesday graphics? It looks like you have some sort of template for it. I really like them.

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    1. I've loved seeing everyone's lists, and Hermione is awesome to see popping up everywhere! I think we all just want to follow her. I came thisclose to putting Galadriel on my list instead of Gandalf.

      On my graphics, I make them on Canva. It's not a template, it's just how I settled on making them and I have it DOWN at this point...it takes like 15-20 minutes to put together, but it used to take a LOT longer!

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    2. Thanks! I use Canva but will have to play around with how to fit all the book covers together so neatly.

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  5. So many great choices, but I love that Ned is on your list! :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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    1. The way GRRM subverted fantasy tropes with his trajectory for the Starks is one of my favorite things about ASOIF...they really are such great heroes!

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  6. YES, YES, YES. I completely agree. Hermione, and Jean Valjean would both be absolutely amazing leaders. :) Thanks for sharing and, as always, fabulous post! <3

    ~ Zoe @ Stories on Stage

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    1. Thank you! A lot of the finer points of Les Miserables have faded with time since I've read it, but my hero worship of Jean Valjean hasn't!

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